With the availability of RU-486 and other methods of terminating
pregnancies at an early stage, an increasing percentage of women are
having abortions before six weeks gestation. But the percentage of women
who have such early abortions varies greatly across the country. In 2006, the latest year for which data is available, this varied from 7.2%
in New York State to 46% in Iowa.

Elective terminations during third trimester: essentially none;
one source estimates a total of 100 across the country (0.01%); others estimate a few thousand per
year in the U.S.

Required hysterotomies: about 4,000/yr. (0.2%). These are
procedures similar to caesarian sections, except that the result is a
dead fetus.

D&X Abortions: (a.k.a. "Partial Birth Abortions) Estimates ranged from
450 per year (0.02%) to ten times that number. The higher value appears to have been calculated by extrapolating data from one New Jersey hospital across the U.S. What is almost never explained in information sources on D&X abortions
is the reason for the procedure. It is generally done for serious medical reasons,

Age, race and marital status:

In 2006, 16.8% of women having abortions were teenagers; about half (49.2%) were under 25 years-of-age. 17

The abortion ratio -- the ratio of abortions to live births -- is highest (754) among those under 15 years-of-age, and lowest (140) among women 30 to 34 years-of-age.

81.3% of the women having abortions were unmarried. Mississippi had the highest rate (92.0%); Utah the lowest (64.1%)4

The rate of teen-age abortions has dropped steadily, from 31 per 1,000 women in 1983 to 21 per
1,000 women in 1994 to 17.4 in 2006. 5,17

Abortions are relatively rare among married women (8.1 per 100 live births) vs. those by
unmarried women (75 per 100 live births). 6,7 These numbers were 7.8 and 65.5 in 1996.4

CDC figures for 1995 show that 20% of women having abortions are in their teens; 33% are
ages 20 to 24, and 47% are ages 25 or older.

In 1996, about 57% of women who receive legal abortions were white.
The abortion rate was 55.5 per 100 live births for black women, 20.2 for
white women, and 36 for women of other races. 4

Almost half of American women (43%) will have an abortion sometime in their lifetime.

Reasons for abortion:

Essentially all abortions are done because the woman simply does not
want to be pregnant. Only a small minority are done for medical
necessary reasons -- i.e. to prevent the woman from dying or to prevent
the pregnancy from causing her a major disability.

Older pregnant women are often urged to undergo a procedure called
amniocentesis, in order to determine if the fetus has a genetic
disorder. We have not been able to find any statistical data on the
percentage of couples that elect to have an abortion after a disorder is
detected. There is some anecdotal information that it is close to
100%.

During the year 2000, in England and Wales, there were 175,000
abortions performed. Of these, 134 of these were performed because of
a risk to the woman's life. Over 162,000, (92%) were solely on the
grounds of risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the
woman. The latter terms are interpreted very broadly in England as
they are in North America. 9

The procedure:

Fewer than 0.5% are done by intrauterine saline or prostaglandin
instillation.

Fewer than 0.01% were done by hysterectomy or hysterotomy

In Michigan during 1995:

0.06% of abortions involved complications (usually shock).

35% of abortions were performed in freestanding clinics; 64% in physician's offices;
essentially none in hospitals. 12

In the US, 69% of abortions are performed at 441 abortion clinics 12

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Access to abortions:

In 1996, 86% of all U.S. counties had no abortion provider. 92%
of the counties had no abortion provider who performed 400 or
more abortions annually. 13

In 1986, 32% of women of reproductive age lived in counties with
no abortion provider. 14

Access to abortion, particularly for women in rural locations,
is expected to improve as medical abortions
using RU-486 become generally available for abortions at up to 7 weeks
gestation.

United Nations statistics show that access to abortion is only
legal in 27% of countries worldwide. Virtually no government in Africa
allows abortion access, although Kenya was considering it as of
2001-OCT. 15

Other factors:

Roman Catholic women have abortions at a significantly higher rate than Protestants. 16

Students have abortions at a higher rate than those who are not. 16

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